Walter Daniel John Tull (28 April 1888 – 25 March 1918) was an English professional footballer and British Army officer of Afro-Caribbean descent.

The stepmother was unable to cope with five children, so the resident minister of Folkestone's Grace Hill Wesleyan Chapel recommended that the two boys of school age, Walter and Edward, should be sent to an orphanage.

[10] This may have been due to the racial abuse he received from opposing fans, particularly at Bristol City, whose supporters used language "lower than Billingsgate",[a] according to a report at the time in the Football Star newspaper.

"[10] Further appearances in the first team (20 in total with four goals) were recorded, before Tull's contract was bought by Southern Football League club Northampton Town on 17 October 1911 for a "substantial fee", plus Charlie Brittain joining Tottenham Hotspur in return.

In 1940, an article in the Glasgow Evening Times about Tull being the first "coloured" infantry officer in the British Army reported that he had signed to play for Rangers after the war.

After the First World War broke out in August 1914, Tull became the first Northampton Town player to enlist in the British Army, in December of that year.

He was praised for his "gallantry and coolness" by Major-General Sydney Lawford, General Officer Commanding 41st Division, having led 26 men on a night-raiding party, crossing the fast-flowing rapids of the Piave River into enemy territory and returning them unharmed.

He was killed in action near the village of Favreuil in the Pas-de-Calais on 25 March during the First Battle of Bapaume, the early stages of the German Army's Spring Offensive.

[23] His body was never recovered, despite the efforts of, among others, Private Tom Billingham, a former goalkeeper for Leicester Fosse, to return him to the British position while under fire.

[25] In a letter of condolence to his family, the commanding officer of the 23rd Battalion, Major Poole and his colleague 2Lt Pickard both said that Tull had been put forward for a Military Cross.

[27][28] In the history of mixed-heritage footballers in Britain, Tull may be mentioned alongside: Robert Walker of Third Lanark; Andrew Watson, an amateur who is credited as the earliest black international football player, winning his first cap for Scotland in 1881; Arthur Wharton, a goalkeeper for several clubs, including Darlington, and who became the first mixed-heritage professional in 1889; John Walker of Hearts and Lincoln, who died aged 22; the Anglo-Indian Cother brothers, Edwin and John, who began their careers at Watford in 1898,[29] and Willie Clarke, who played for Aston Villa and Bradford City in the Edwardian era.

From around 2006, campaigners including the then Northampton South MP, Brian Binley, and Phil Vasili, who has researched Tull since the early 1990s, called for a statue to be erected in his honour at Dover and for him to be posthumously awarded the Military Cross.

[32] A Royal Army Medical Corps officer Allan Noel Minns, also a natural-born British subject of Afro-Caribbean descent, was awarded both DSO and MC.

Tull's name is listed in the Roll of Honour for the City of Glasgow, his address given as 419 St. Vincent Street, the location of the dental surgery belonging to his brother Edward.

[39] On 21 October 2014, a blue plaque was unveiled at 77 Northumberland Park, London N17, on the site of the house where Tull lived before the war, close to the White Hart Lane ground.

The plaque was provided by the Nubian Jak Community Trust and was unveiled by former Spurs striker Garth Crooks, who described Tull as an "amazing man" whose recognition had been "a long time coming".

[42] In September 2018, to mark the centenary of the end of the First World War, Royal Mail produced a set of stamps, one of which features Tull.

[43] On Remembrance Sunday 2018, the people of Ayr, Scotland, came together to etch a large sand portrait of Tull into the town's beach as part of "Pages of the Sea", a nationwide public art project curated by Oscar-winning filmmaker Danny Boyle.

[52] In 2005 Michaela Morgan wrote Respect!, an account of Tull's life, specifically written for young people and was published by Barrington Stoke.